Caribbean American Congressmember Rallies For Removal Of Confederate Signs In Brooklyn

News Americas, Brooklyn, NY, Weds. Aug. 23, 2017:Fresh on the heels of her “Honoring Real Patriots Act of 2017” bill, Caribbean American Congressmember Yvette Clarke on Tuesday held a rally with some supporters in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, to urge the removal of Confederate signs from the area.

The rally was a move to pressure the U.S. Army to change the street names of two Confederate generals — General Lee Avenue and Stonewall Jackson Drive, both located inside Fort Hamilton in Bay Ridge.

“I want to thank all who joined me in the fight to remove Confederate signs from Fort Hamilton,” Clarke tweeted last night.

Community leaders have been asking for years that the street names be changed. Now with Clarke’s bill and support from fellow Brooklyn Congressmembers Nydia Velázquez and Hakeem Jeffries, they are hopeful the Confederate imagery from U.S. military installations will soon be history.

The bill also calls on the Pentagon to change the name of “any military installation or other property under the jurisdiction of the Department of Defense that is currently named after any individual who took up arms” against the country during the Civil War.

Congresswoman Clarke said that the bill was necessary since “the Army has resisted the call the to change the names on streets in Fort Hamilton, which for decades have been used to honor men who in fact waged war against the United States to protect the evil institution of slavery.”

“We believe that these memorials are an insult and are a magnet to those in the White Supremacist movement to continue their bigotry, their hate, their violence,” the congresswoman added.